Garment



R. G. ARKIN Jan. 10, 1956 GARMENT Filed Feb. 16, 1953 INVENTOR. 83 R065 G. ARK/N United States Patent GARMENT Rose G. Arkin, New York, N. Y. I Application February 16, 1953, Serial No. 337,061

2 Claims. (Cl. 2-76) This invention relates to garments, and more particularly is concerned with womens dresses.

Ready-to-wear dresses conventionally are designed, cut and fitted for a model figure. However, this figure is an average one for women who will buy and wear a particular size dress and, therefore, when the dress actually is purchased it usually will be found that it does not fit the wearer as well as desired. In most instances, the improper fit is due to an incorrect position of the waistline.

A great many dresses constitute an upper half (hereinafter referred to as a blouse although it cannot be worn separately) and a lower half (hereinafter referred to as a skirt although it too cannot be worn separately). The blouse and skirt are sewn together at the waist.

One of the notable differences between the purchasers dimensions and the dimensions of the model figure whose proportions are a composite of the proportions of all women of a certain height and weight is the distance from neck to waistline over the bust and from neck to waistline over the back. The average woman who buys a dress finds that the waistline is either too high at the front and too low at the back or vice versa. The model for whom the dress was designed has a certain size bust. The purchaser with a different size bust will have the waistline of the garment located in a position differing from the position for which it was designed to be disposed on the model, that is to say, if the purchasers bust is larger than the models the waistline will be too high on the purchaser and the front of the dress and of the skirt hiked up. Conversely, if the purchasers bust is smaller than the models, the waistline will be too low on the purchaser. The displacement of the waistline at the front of the garment alfects the location of the waistline at the rear of the garment and moreover any variation between the wearers posture and the models, or any other natural variations of neck to waist measurements, front or back, will undesir'ably change the location of the waistline at the back or front of the garment.

I have observed that these factors which shift the waistline at the-front and back of the dress do not, in general, alter the location of the waistline at the sides.

2,729,822 Patented Jan. 10, 1956 hereinafter described and of which the scope of application will be indicated in the appended claims.

'In the accompanying drawings in which is shown one of the various possible embodiments of my invention,

Fig. l is a front view of a dress constructed in accordance with my invention, parts of the waistline being broken away better to illustrate the details of the front adjusting means; I

Fig. 2 is a similar view of the rear adjusting means;

Fig. 3 is an enlarged front view of the waistline of the dress with the skirt broken away and alternative positions of the front adjusting means illustrated in dotted lines;

Fig. 4 is an inside developed view of the waistline of the dress;

Fig. 5 is a fragmentary view of the side of the dress; and

Figs. 6 and 7 are enlarged sectional views taken substantially along the lines 66 and 7-7, respectively, of Figl.

Referring now in detail to the drawings, the reference numeral 10 denotes a dress embodying my invention. Said dress includes an upper half, i. e., blouse, 12, and a lower half, i. e., skirt, 14, which are of conventional construction except for certain details incorporated pursuant to my invention and which soon will be apparent.

The blouse and skirt are separate articles, i. e., they are not fabricated from a single piece of fabric. The term separate as used herein does not denote that there is no connection between the articles but merely that the same are not integrally connected, e. g., in one piece.

The bottom of the blouse extends through the waist opening of the skirt and is concealed thereby. In accordance with my invention the sides of the skirt at the waistline are permanently secured in suitable fashion to the sides of the blouse at zones whose height depend upon the design of the dress, e. g., to obtain a high or low waistline effect. As illustrated, the permanent securement is achieved atone side of the dress by stitching 16 (see Fig. 6). A, similar attachment may be employedat the other side of the dress. However, to obtain a better fit for the dress I prefer to employ at the latter side rapidly operable means such, for example, as a slide fastener 18, hooks and eyes or snaps. One stringer 20 of the slide fastener is secured as'by stitching 22 along the front edge of a vertical slit traversing the waistline, and the other stringer 24 is secured as by Heretofore it has been the custom to individually fit ready-to-wear dresses by letting out or taking up the seam joining the blouse and skirt. This requires expert tailoring, consumes considerable time and is relatively expensive.

It is an object of my invention to provide a ready-towear dress having special adjusting means for enabling an unskilled person quickly and simply to alter the lo cation of the waistline without any knowledge, expense or aptitude in dressmaking.

Other objects of my invention will in part be obvious and in part will be pointed out hereinafter.

My invention accordingly consists in the features of construction, combinations of elements and arrangements of parts which will be exemplified in the device stitching 26 along the back edge of the vertical slit. The rows of stitching 22, 26' extend through the skirt and blouse at the side of the dress and thereby permanently secure the skirt to the blouse at said side. Thus,

the skirt is anchored to the blouse at both sides of the dress at the waistline thereof.

However, the skirt is not permanently secured to the blouse across either the front or-back of the waistline,

for instance, by stitching, as has been the case hereto- .fore. Where such permanent stitching is used it is difficult to rip the same out when altering the waistline and to restitch the blouse to the skirt in a concealed manner which will leave the blouse and skirt smoothly joined at the waistline. This difiicult operation requires the skill of a tailor or seamstress for the two parts seldom fit together again without careful refitting.

Pursuant to my invention the skirt is secured to the blouse at the waistline across the front and back between the anchor zones by linear rapidly detachable attaching means, snap fasteners being preferred.

More particularly, at the front of the dress I attach a fabric tape 28 to the outside of the blouse in horizontal position at the waistline. The attachment is effected by a row of stitching 30. Desirably I employ only a single row. Mounted on the tape 28 are a plurality of uniformly spaced, halves 32 of conventional snap fasteners, e. g., male halves. Another fabric tape 34 is horizontally disposed on the front inside of the skirt at the waistline, said tape being suitably held in position as by plural rows of stitching 36. The tape 34 mounts a plurality of the other halves 38 of conventional snap fasteners, viz. female halves. The snap fastener halves 38 are spaced uniformly along their mounting tape 34 in the same manner as the halves 32, so that if any given pair of couplable snap fastener halves are registered, all the remaining pairs of halves likewise will be registered.

The tape 28 extends across the front of the blouse almost from one side to almost the other, and the tape 34 similarly extendsaeross the front of the skirt, i. e. almost from one side to almost the other. The two tapes are so locatedwith respect to the sides of the dress that the snap fastener halves thereon are circumferentially registered, whereby when the halves. are coupled there will be a smooth connection between the blouse and the skirt.

Similar circumferentially extending tapes and snap fastener halves denoted by the same reference numerals primed are provided at the rear of the garment, one tape being secured to the outside of the blouse and the other tape to the inside of the skirt at the waistline and the ends of the tapes being near the sides of the dress (see Fig. 4).

It now will be appreciated that if the waistline is improperly located for a particular purchaser, she simply hasto cut the stitching 30 securing the tape 28 or 28' tothe blouse either at the front or the back or both, place pin holding the tapes 28, 28 to the blouse for the desired position of the waistline, and then stitch the tapes 28 or 28' or both in the desired higher or lower position, as indicated, for instance, in Fig. 3 in dotted lines, whereupon the dress Will have the waistline located in proper position. In other words, all that is necessary is to remove the stitch holding band on the waist, to pin it in the proper position for the particular waistline, and restitch it when the satisfactory waistline has been found. Thus it is clear this avoids the necessity of directly sewing the blouse and skirt back together again after. the waistline seam has been ripped because the waistline has been improperly positioned for a particular wearer. By eliminating such direct stitching, the purchaser is able to obtain a very smooth junction between the skirt and the blouse without ripping the major garment, whereas considerable dressmaking skill is needed to obtain such a smooth line by direct stitching because of all the rows of stitching, raw edges and seams sewed together.

Fixing the skirt to the blouse at the sides of the garment provides anchor points which insure proper symmetry and grading of the waistline.

it thus will be seen that I have provided a device which achieves all the objects of my invention and is Well adapted to meet the conditions of practical use.

As various possible embodiments might be made of the above invention, and as various changes might be made in the embodiment above set forth, it is to be understood that all matter herein described, or shown in the accompanying drawings, is to be interpreted as illustrative and not in a limiting sense.

Having thus described my invention, I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent:

1. A ready-to-wear dress comprising a skirt and a blouse, the lower edge of the blouse extending a substantial distance below the upper edge of the skirt and being disposed within the skirt, the skirt and blouse being secured together by stitching adjacent the waistline and terminating at opposite sides of the dress, said skirt and blouse being detachably secured across the dress between the side stitching by means constituting a pair of long strips, means securing one strip along its entire length to the inside of the skirt at the waistline adjacent the upper edge of the skirt, stitching securing the other strip along its entire length to the outside of the blouse at the waistline a substantial distance above the lower edge of the blouse whereby the position of the other strip can be adjusted up ordown to fit the dress to a wearers figure, and a set of identically spaced couplable halves of detachable attaching means secured to said strips whereby the strips are detachably connected to one another.

2. A ready-to-wear dress comprising a skirt and a blouse, the said skirt and blouse being stitched togetheradjacent the waistline at the sides of the dress and being detachably secured together across the front and back of the dress, the lower edge of the blouse extending asubstantial distance below the upper edge of the skirt and i being disposed within the skirt at the front and back of the dress, said blouse being detachably secured to said skirt between the sides of the dress across the front and back thereof by means constituting two pairs of long strips, one pair of long strips extending across the front of the dress and the other pair of long strips extending across the back of the dress, means securing one strip of each of said pair of strips along its entire length to the inside of the skirt at the waistline adjacent the upper edge of the skirt, stitching securing the other strip of each pair of strips along its entire length to the outside of the blouse at the waistline a substantial distance above the lower edge of the blouse whereby the position of the said other strips can be adjusted up or down to fit the dress to a wearers figure, and sets of identically spaced couplable halves of detachable attaching means secured to said strips whereby the strips of each pair of strips are detachably connected to one another.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,063,683 Mendels July 29, 1913 1,174,316 Hartmann Mar. 7, 1916 2,142,479 Rosenfelder Jan. 3', 1939 2,587,911 Sider Mar. 4, 1952 2,632,892 Wiesenfeld Mar. 31, 1953 FOREIGN PATENTS 7,136 Great Britain Jan. 6, 1916 

